I've wanted a film light for my dslr camera for some basic filming and photographing. And it seems to me that film lights are just led lights, which leads me to the question, how come they are so darn expensive? I know they vary widely in price but still I'm not quite sure what you get in the high end part for that much more $$.

I eventually made my own video light that can be seen here:

and I even included light color temperature adjustment for a fraction of the price of commercially manufactured one.

I was inspired by diy-perks video where he makes a much bigger one and that also for a fraction of the price.

can someone just enlighten me on what you actually pay for when you spend > $100 on camera light equipment that seemly just output light?

While these are valid costs, they should generally be a much lower proportion of unit costs, especially as mass produced units can normally buy raw materials at SIGNIFCANTLY lower cost than DIY projects.

IMO a significant part of the price extra is profit. Perhaps trying to maximize the takings before people find out how easy they are to make (or until local photostores have stocked up on cheap Chinese units).

While these are valid costs, they should generally be a much lower proportion of unit costs, especially as mass produced units can normally buy raw materials at SIGNIFCANTLY lower cost than DIY projects.

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But I'll get you a dollar the OP didn't consider ANY of them when calculating the true 'cost' of his DIY lights.

IMO a significant part of the price extra is profit. Perhaps trying to maximize the takings before people find out how easy they are to make (or until local photostores have stocked up on cheap Chinese units).

Including not considering a wage/salary for the OP, the cost of his soldering iron, electricity to heat the soldering iron and power the lights/heat/AC in his shop, a portion of the cost of the pliers he used to strip insulation off the wires, and yada, yada, yada.

But I'll get you a dollar the OP didn't consider ANY of them when calculating the true 'cost' of his DIY lights.

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I'm well aware of the facts that companies have expenses to pay. I don't think you really understand what I meant. What I'm trying to say is that film lights don't seem that technically advanced to me to really justify the prices they charge, considering the fact that they are basically just led lights on a panel with a driver circuit. So I was asking whether they have special features that I'm missing that justify their high cost or if it might be a case of premium branding to increase profit margins.

I feel like the only way i can see any justification to these prices are that either the market for film light is so small they haven't streamlined the process enough and is basically assembling everything by hand or they have such a quality standard that they basically use gold instead of copper for their pcbs.

I've wanted a film light for my dslr camera for some basic filming and photographing. And it seems to me that film lights are just led lights, which leads me to the question, how come they are so darn expensive? I know they vary widely in price but still I'm not quite sure what you get in the high end part for that much more $$.

I eventually made my own film light that can be seen here:

and I even included light color temperature adjustment for a fraction of the price of commercially manufactured one.

I was inspired by diy-perks video where he makes a much bigger one and that also for a fraction of the price.

can someone just enlighten me on what you actually pay for when you spend > $100 on camera light equipment that seemly just output light?

I've wanted a film light for my dslr camera for some basic filming and photographing. And it seems to me that film lights are just led lights, which leads me to the question, how come they are so darn expensive? I know they vary widely in price but still I'm not quite sure what you get in the high end part for that much more $$.

I eventually made my own film light that can be seen here:

and I even included light color temperature adjustment for a fraction of the price of commercially manufactured one.

I was inspired by diy-perks video where he makes a much bigger one and that also for a fraction of the price.

can someone just enlighten me on what you actually pay for when you spend > $100 on camera light equipment that seemly just output light?

But I'll get you a dollar the OP didn't consider ANY of them when calculating the true 'cost' of his DIY lights.

Click to expand...

I'm well aware of the facts that companies have expenses to pay. I don't think you really understand what I meant. What I'm trying to say is that film lights don't seem that technically advanced to me to really justify the prices they charge, considering the fact that they are basically just led lights on a panel with a driver circuit. So I was asking whether they have special features that I'm missing that justify their high cost or if it might be a case of premium branding to increase profit margins.

I feel like the only way i can see any justification to these prices are that either the market for film light is so small they haven't streamlined the process enough and is basically assembling everything by hand or they have such a quality standard that they basically use gold instead of copper for their pcbs.

Click to expand...

Well, tell ya what then: You've obviously found a major flaw in the business model of all the major manufacturers. Exploit it. Go into production yourself and start cranking out your own brand of lights.

Egads, man... you're sitting on a gold mine! Get your shovel out and start digging!